Total knee joint replacement (arthroplasty) is a common and very successful surgery for people with degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis) of the knee. Over 200,000 patients a year in the United States undergo total knee replacement surgery. Total knee replacement puts an artificial surface on all parts of the knee joint that contact each other as the knee bends. The damaged cartilage is removed, a small amount of bone is removed, the knee implant is attached to the distal end of the femur and proximal end of the tibia, and the patella is resurfaced if necessary. The implant typically is made of metal and plastic and provides an artificial articulating surface which causes no pain to the patient. Unfortunately total knee replacement results in sacrifice of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments.
More recently, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty has been utilized where there is arthritic damage to only a single compartment of the knee and no damage to the other compartments. The inside (medial) component (medial tibial plateau and the medial femoral condyle) is most commonly involved and replaced using unicompartmental arthroplasty. However, occasionally, the outside (lateral) compartment (the lateral tibial plateau and the lateral femoral condyle) is sometimes involved and must be replaced. Also the knee cap, i.e., the patellofemoral compartment (the patella and femoral trochlear notch) may also develop osteoarthritis. Heretofore, if more than a single compartment of the knee had arthritic disease, total knee replacement was the only available treatment. The present invention provides a device and method for bicompartmental arthroplasty which permits the resurfacing of the medial and patellofemoral joints of the knee or the lateral and patellofemoral joints without the necessity for resurfacing of the opposite compartment of the knee or the sacrifice of the anterior or posterior cruciate ligaments.